SNL: Jeremy Renner VS Jason Sudeikis on a Movie Set

There's an interesting phenomenon unique to Saturday Night Live: they can book the biggest stars in the world, but sometimes those big stars end up essentially being used as glorified props. Of course, this is only the case when the star in question doesn't prove adept at live comedy and Jeremy Renner more than fit that bill. When that happens, you see sketches like this one, where the star does very little while a SNL veteran (in this case, Jason Sudeikis) gets to drive the scene.

It's one of those barebones "what can we do for pennies on sets we've already built?" kind of sketches. Renner plays himself, preparing for a big scene on a film set populated by characters named by writers who are still 13 year old boys at heart. His co-star in the scene is a big mouthed meathead played by Sudeikis, who seems to be breaking out the Vin Diesel impression he's prepared and never had to use. The sketch is ultimately a chance for Sudeikis to strut this stuff and elevate mediocre writing through sheer performance while Renner's general blankness acts as a comedic bouncing board.

Although the sketch itself isn't particularly great, its straightforwardness is refreshing. Too many SNL sketches rely on gimmicks and seeing one that's essentially an old fashioned comedy sketch is a lot of fun. What do you think? Do you like stripped down sketches like this?